Salus Mae
by Silver Katsuyami
Summary: A Sequel of snippets of the life Salutem leads, this is also the alternate ending to Salutem Judas I was speaking of. New readers are welcome, but I highly recommend reading Salutem Judas first. Goodbye my almost lover, goodbye my hopeless dream. I'm trying not to think about you. Can't you just let me be? So long my luckless romance, my back is turned on you. Her voice echoes.


**Salus Mae:**

**This will be snippets of Salutem's life after Salutem Judas. I don't think I'll be able to keep this as one chapter. P.S. Anyone new reading, you might need to go read the first in the series, Salutem Judas. P.P.S BH is OC, he has a name now, and I don't do well with graphic scenes, so there will be none of those. Don't like, run away little bunnies. I don't own it, but you don't have to like that either. If I did, I'd share….really I would.. **

**King of the Wicked **

Fog clouds her heavy mind, nothing able to penetrate the darkness that engulfs her. Her eyelids are heavy, and through the darkness of her mind, something finally breaks through. "Salutem….wake up…" a soft hand pushes her to wake up. She groans and rolls over in the back seat of the truck, curling back into the warmth of the fabric around her. A light chuckle fills her senses and thrills her to the point where she wonders who could have made such an alluring noise. Slowly she turns her head and opens one eye to find Black Hat staring at her with a lopsided smirk on his lips, one of his fangs peeking out from behind his smooth lips.

"Come." Is all he says, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he steps out of the truck and into daylight. She groans and sits up, rubbing her eyes with the sleeves of a thick jacket. She looks down and smiles softly, he had thrown her his coat before she had gone to sleep. She couldn't for the life of her understand her dream, and fear creeps into her mind as she looks at her legs. She gulps as he opens the back door and offers her a hand. She stares at it momentarily before accepting it and letting him pull her out. She almost cries in happiness when they stay firm under her, though they had fallen asleep, and send tingling sensations up the whole of her legs. Before she has the chance to look around, he pulls a blindfold over her eyes.

"What the hell!" her voice cracks slightly and she hears her father chuckle.

"I would have never thought my baby girl had such a foul mouth." She pouts and shakes her head.

"Seriously, is it necessary to blind fold me? What's going on?" her heart skips with hope and a heavy arm goes around her shoulder and guides her north. Her mind runs a mile a minute, not able to process any vibrations around her. She keeps shooting herself down, saying it was just a joke, maybe they had found a brothel and the boys were excited to toy with her. Suddenly everyone stops, but he keeps leading her.

"You have suffered enough and warred with yourself, it's time that you've won." He says softly in her ear, a light melody behind his husky voice, and as the blindfold drops, her heart skips into her throat and tears fill her eyes as she looks at the sight before her. Un-easyness consumes her. Before her stands the giant gates of sector one. They had made it to the end of their world. What she failed to notice was the blast sized hole to her right. He turns her slightly and her eyes over flow.

Words escape her as she slowly walks through the rubble made by a small bomb and a sob escapes her mouth as she walks forward fifty feet and collapses into soft, long, green, warm grass. Suddenly her laughter flows through her whole body as a shadow passes over her face. She looks up into those golden eyes and she slowly stands.

"Am I dreaming again?" she asks softly, and he shakes his head. She suddenly throws herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face in the crook of it, her nose pressing against his surprisingly warm skin.

"Thank you, so much. You don't know how much this means!" she suddenly pulls away, blushing.

"But wont the church come out here?" she asks, her eyes wide with worry. He shakes his head "No. The vampyre are already moving in this direction, they will guard the gates from the church while it still stands." He smirks down at her and places a light kiss on her forehead.

"You, you're something special. This is your land to do as you will, this is my gift to you." Her smile slowly fades, even in the beauty of the trees, flower and grass, his words made her falter.

"You're leaving again?" there is was in her eyes, the disappointment he had feared the whole trip.

"I have a mission, to irradiate the church, to bring clarity to all those who doubt the power and truth behind the vampyre. This is the mission I accepted from the queen when she saved me." His eyes soften at the tears in her eyes.

"The queen and her nest will be just outside these gates. This promises to you, that I will come back for you, Salus Mae. You have brought to me light that I have never seen. There is a fire within you that I will always be able to find, even in the darkness of the deepest pit the church has to offer." His fingers brush against her cheek as he whispers softly to her. "But I will stay until tomorrow at daybreak. I will help you get settled and ready for the troubles to come. Before I forget, this is for you as well." He pulls a notebook from a bag she didn't see he was carrying. She opens it, and it is empty, just blank pages.

"For you to account for your adventures, for the years to come after we are long gone from this land." She smiles at this and looks back at the book.

"Just like the stories and songs we found on the train. Oh how wonderful. Thank you….Malkira.." she trails off, seeing the surprise in his eyes.

"How….how did you find out you little minx?" he asks, his tone teasing and yet filled with wonder.

"My….my dream….I dreamt we crashed and the last thing I herd you whisper was that….then I was in a hospital….I couldn't walk….but there was a garden, so beautiful where I herd your laugh." She blushes sheepishly. He shakes his head slightly.

"You are a clever one. I made you climb into the back when you started falling asleep, and you asked what my name meant. The only thing I told you was that it means King of the Wicked. A suiting name my parents gave me was what you said back." He smiles and wraps his arms around her again.

"But how you guessed my actual name, it's a wonder." She smiles softly and wraps her arms back around him, enjoying his musky powerful smell and the feel of his arms around her.

"We knew you'd like it, but we didn't know you'd like it this much." Raul teases her and she pulls from Malkira slowly.

"I love it Raul, this is perfect! It's our Garden that mama talked about." She grins and Jessie squeels and the two girls hug and squeel together, chatting quickly about where to put what and what to do with what space or plant. The excitement of the two women make the men scratch their heads and begin to set up their camp.

As night falls, the vampyre come out, and the sounds of digging and other various noises echo around them as the hive slowly builds itself from scratch. Salutem sits at the feet of Malkira, listening softly. Everyone else had decided to go to bed early, while the two left decided to stay up, and neither telling the other that the reason was to spend their last moments together.

"Is the Queen out there?" she asks softly, making him chuckle.

"No little one, she's not. She will be here in about three days." He leans down in front of her face, and grabs the ring around her neck.

"This, this is your key to staying safe. The vampyre are drawn to you, they feel a deep need to protect you, even without this ring. If ever you need the help of a hive, or even just a hive guardian, all you have to do his hold this in your hands. It is a jewel the queen had me make. Encased in this gem is the blood of my queen. She will know you are in distress, and she will send help." He kisses her head softly, sending jolts of electricity through her.

She takes a drink of her whisky and without another thought; the night became what she had wished for in the months before.

They lay together, her head on his chest and her leg between his two with his arm around her bare shoulders. Their breathing had finally evened out, now they lay sprawled within her tent under the trees, away from everyone else. His warmth engulfs her and lulls her slowly to sleep, the soft smile on her face as he whispered sweet nothings in her ear, fearing he didn't truly mean them, these fear ebb away slowly as she feels no indication that he wanted to leave her side any time soon.

His words echo around her, how stunning she is, how he is drawn to her for no reason, and how he knew she was still alive after those months, years and days. His words bring her a comfort she couldn't understand, and didn't need to to know she belonged with him.


End file.
